issues and debates

• Cultural bias

  Etic and emic research

  There are two approaches in research and both are liable to cultural bias

  Etic research is when research based on one culture is generalised and applied to all cultures

  Emic research is based on studying a specific culture

  
  

  
  

  weakness of emic approach: bias - researchers can over-emphasise the differences between the cultural groups and not looking at the differences within the cultural groups as a result of individual differences

  
  

  
  

  • etic bias -one sub-culture researched - conclusions = generalised wider culture
• Gender bias


  Alpha bias

  Exaggerating the differences between men & women

  • Theories assume there are real and enduring differences between men and women

  Beta bias

  Exaggerating the similarity between men & women

  • They minimise gender differences
  • Assume all people are the same - applying theories/research to both men and women is reasonable
  • Often happens when findings obtained from men are applied to women without additional validation

  androcentrism - male behaviour as the norm, female behaviour as deviant, inferior, abnormal, or ‘other’ instead of just being different
• Cross-cultural research

  Main issues with cross-cultural research:

  Difficulty in interpretation

  • language differences - translation and understanding - things can be misinterpreted - imposed etic

  Difficulty in replicability. This causes the results to be less valid

  • decreased ability to properly/ accurately translate procedures

  
  

  Cultural relativism is the idea that there is no universal standard to behaviour.

  Psychological research should take into account the culture that it is being conducted in, i.e. they must observe cultural relativism.
• Determinism


  People cannot choose how to behave - they only behave (effect) as a result of a cause

  past events and causes can affect our current behaviour

  3 types:

  • Biological determinism focuses on the argument that genes determine our dispositions, behaviours and responses.
  • Psychic determinism focuses on learned unconscious behaviours (rather than conscious decisions) guiding our behaviour.
  • Environmental determinism focuses on things like conditioning (to survive in an environment we may have to learn a behaviour) and this learned behaviour will then determine our actions.
• Determinism

  • scientific - cause and effect relationships
  • unfalsifiable - makes the assumption that events are based on past events or causes that may not be discovered
• Determinism


  The cognitive approach

  The cognitive approach is a combination of free will and determinism.

  On the deterministic side, the brain receives external sensory information and processes this information

  The processing will lead to different behaviours

  In addition, people’s brain structure and cognitive ability can have genetic roots

  free will: people can use cognitive reasoning to make decisions. People can make choices by thinking about them

  people are influenced by outside behaviours and their own brain structure (deterministic) but can use reasoning (free will)
• reductionism and holism

  levels of explanation

  A) sociological

  B) psychological

  C) biological

  D) chemical

  E) physical